Thirteenth World Conference

The Lives to Come

Telmo Pievani

ENG. Telmo Pievani (1970) Graduated in Philosophy of Science at the University of Milan, researcher in the field of Philosophy of Biology, after Ph.D. researches in USA, he is now Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Milan Bicocca, and Coordinator of the Degree Course in Educational Sciences. He is author of 108 papers and several books: “Homo sapiens and Other Catastrophes”Â (Meltemi, Rome, 2002; new edition 2006); “Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology”Â (Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2005; Portuguese edition in press); “The Theory of Evolution”Â (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2006, new edition 2010); “Creation without God”Â (Einaudi, Turin, 2006; Spanish edition 2009); “In Defence of Darwin”Â (Bompiani, Milan, 2007); “Born to Believe”Â (Codice Edizioni, Turin, 2008, with V. Girotto and G. Vallortigara); “The Unexpected Life”Â (Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milan, 2011). He is Fellow of: Italian Society of Evolutionary Biology; Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice; Umberto Veronesi Foundation in Milan; Istituto Italiano di Antropologia in Rome. He is member of the editorial board of Evolution: Outreach and Education. Engaged in several projects regarding communication of science in Italy, he is member of the Scientific Board of Genoa Science Festival and Scientific co-Director of Rome Festival of Sciences. He is Director of “Pikaia”Â, the Italian website dedicated to evolution and philosophy of biology (www.pikaia.eu). With Niles Eldredge he directed the scientific Atlas of the future of the earth “Ecosphere”Â (UTET ”“ De Agostini, Turin, 2010). With Niles Eldredge and Ian Tattersall, he was the Curator of the Italian edition of the International exhibition “Darwin 1809-2009”Â (Rome, Milan, Bari, 2009-2010; www.darwin2009.it). With Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza he is preparing a new International exhibition, dedicated to human evolution and the research project “genes, peoples and languages”Â, hosted in Rome, November 2011-February 2012, at the Palace of Expositions. He is a columnist for the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, and journals Le Scienze, Micromega and L'Indice dei Libri.

The evolution of mind has suffered for long time the so called “Wallace Paradox”, according to which the peculiar psychological and cognitive faculties of human species could not be scientifically handled from an evolutionary point of view, because of their complexity and specificity. Echoes of this theoretical “exception” to the methodological naturalism are still ringing today around the question of the origins of human language. The shift between the “proximate causes” of the functioning of human brain and the “remote causes” of its evolution inside the phylogenetic tree of hominins is actually very tough, and always exposed to the danger of unverifiable “just-so-stories”. Nevertheless, thanks to a growing mass of new data - coming from different fields like molecular biology, evolutionary developmental biology, neurosciences, cognitive ethology, psychology of thought – we have now maybe for the first time the possibility to begin the reconstruction of the puzzle of the natural history of human cognition, understanding the ways through which we became cognitively modern “sapiens”. Adopting an updated version of the Neo-Darwinian theory of evolution, and carefully gathering those interdisciplinary clues, we can start an intriguing research programme concerning the evolution of human mind, discovering that the same set of factors involved in the evolution of any living being has generated this outstanding human innovation as well. Environmental contingencies, functional cooptations, cohabitations with other human species, and a unique social and cognitive niche, have been probably the fascinating mechanisms of the evolution of human mind.